Sunday, April 11, 2004

NEWARK, N.J. - Acting on a tip that a plane carrying scores of illegal aliens was heading to Newark Liberty International Airport, federal agents detained 88 people, all Latin American immigrants who had flown here from Los Angeles.

The detainees were being held at locations across northern New Jersey on Friday. Their cases will be presented to an immigration judge in coming weeks, said Janet Rapaport, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Fifty-three aliens came from Mexico, 16 from Guatemala, 16 from Ecuador, two from El Salvador and one from Honduras....Deportation proceedings will begin against the detainees as part of their hearings, Rapaport said.

Full employment for immigration lawyers!

Continental Airlines flight 1803 from Los Angeles landed at Newark early Thursday. Continental spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said the flight had 200 passengers aboard. He said passengers are not required to show proof of citizenship before boarding domestic flights.

But they do have to show photo ID. So c'mon Rahsaan, what did they use?

Federal authorities have conducted similar enforcement actions at Los Angeles International Airport for years, but the number of passengers detained Thursday was "unusual" for a single flight, an airport spokeswoman said.

Federal agents detained 42 people suspected of being illegal immigrants and arrested four others yesterday at Newark Liberty International Airport in the second crackdown in three days on people from Latin countries arriving in Newark from Los Angeles, the authorities said....Civil liberties lawyers and advocates for immigrants said last week that the detentions on Thursday raised questions about the law and immigration policy, and that such mass detentions were uncommon.

Raise questions about the "policy"? Heck with the "policy," what about airline security and border protection?